The Effect of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction and Word-of-Mouth Communication: A Gender Based Research in the Airline Industry

Abstract

The airline industry is one of the fastest growing industries in Turkey and worldwide and is one of the industries that make significant contributions to the global economy as well as to tourism and the Gross Domestic Product of the countries. In recent years, there has been an improvement over the estimates of international organizations. This situation has made it mandatory for firms, which want to survive in a highly competitive environment and obtain sustainable competitive advantage, to offer high-quality services and retain existing customers and attract potential customers. However, customer’s perceptions of service quality can affect their level of satisfaction and their ability to communicate opinions to other people about their experiences. In addition, customer characteristics can affect their perceptions of service. For this reason, in this study it was aimed to investigate the effect of male and female participants’perceived level of service quality on their satisfaction levels and word-ofmouth communication. An online questionnaire was conducted to obtain the data and the Convenience Sampling Method was adopted in the submission of the questionnaires. The universe of the study is very large, and the sample consists of consumers who prefer air transportation and the majority of them are academicians. In addition, Independent- Samples T Test and Multiple Regression Analysis were performed in the study. As a result, it was found that perceptions of the female participants about the dimension of “Reliability” and the perceptions of the male participants about the dimension of “Physical Appearance” had a statistically significant and positive effect on their satisfaction level and word-of-mouth communication activities.